Pills Don't Protect Like Produce

Only God has put together the perfect combination of ingredients to make up the phytonutrients that work best to keep the body, mind and spirit healthy.
Score fruits and vegetables a win over pills or even nutrition in pill form. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables has been linked to improved heart health. But in a large new study, taking supplements of the same nutrients found in produce failed to benefit women at risk for cardiovascular disease.
Antioxidant vitamins are thought to protect the body against oxidative damage-harm to cells caused by exposure to oxygen—which may contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease. Antioxidants also counteract compounds known as "free radicals," which may damage artery lining, encourage blood clots and alter the function of blood vessels.
The lead author of the new study, Nancy R. Cook, ScD., of Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical school, explained, "Diets high in fruit and vegetable intake, and thus rich in such antioxidants, have been associated with reduced rates of coronary heart disease and stroke. Vitamins C and E and beta carotene are potential mediators of the apparent protective effect of a plan-based diet on cardiovascular disease."
Cook and colleagues tested the effects of these compounds in the Women’s Antioxidant Cardiovascular study, which followed 8,171 women 40 years or older (average age 60.6) beginning in 1995 to 1996. The women either had a history of cardiovascular disease or three or more cardiac risk factors. They were randomly assigned to take 500 milligrams of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or placebo every day; 600 international units (IU) of vitamin E or placebo every other day; and 50 milligrams of beta carotene or placebo every other day. Participants were followed up for the occurrence of heart events–including stroke, heart attack and bypass surgery–or death through 2005.
During the average study period of 9.4 years, 1,450 women suffered one or more cardiovascular events, including 274 heart attacks, 298 strokes, 889 coronary revascularization procedures (bypass-surgery or angioplasty) and 395 cardiovascular deaths (out of 995 deaths).
Neither antioxidant vitamin nor beta carotene showed a statistically significant benefit in reducing the risk of cardiovascular events. Taking the compounds in combination proved similarly disappointing., although women assigned to both vitamins C and E experienced fewer strokes.
"While additional research into combinations of agents, particularly for stroke, may be of interest," the authors concluded, "widespread use of these individual agents for cardiovascular protection does not appear warranted."
Contrary to recent, controversial research suggesting that supplements of antioxidant vitamins and beta carotene might actually be harmful (see the June 2006 Healthletter), the study at least found no harm from the pills.
So why don’t the compounds that promote heart health when consumed in food work the same way when popped as pills? "Single antioxidants may not reflect the complex vitamins and nutrients found in foods," according to Cook, "which may explain the discrepancies between most intervention trials and studies of fruits and vegetables.
You can learn more: Archives of Internal Medicine. Aug. 13, 2007; abstract at /
For specifics and more, you might want to read Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter : November 2007.
Lack of success in replicating nature’s food remedies has caused many patients to lose faith in a body of knowledge solely dependent on prescription drugs and surgery. If we are approach a time when prevention will be worth a pound of cure then we need to consider our kitchen and choice of healthy foods as the real source of good health. Integrative Doctors will have to go back to college or do the research required to bring them up to grade in a workable solution to improving our ratings worldwide when it comes to longevity, obesity, diabetes and cardiac events.
You are to be congratulated because you drove to this place on your own and are therefore accepting that your health is more a matter of your knowledge than the prescription pad in an HMO 15-minute session costing over $100. We can do better, but it will mean that each individual will have to revolutionize the way they live, what they eat and learn to live without the destructive sources of bad food and pills.